How the Bible Was Written It took about 1500 years for the whole Bible to be written-from Genesis, written at the time of Moses, to Revelation, written by the apostle John about 65 years after Christ's death. There were many different authors, living at different times and in different places. Yet none of these writers contradict one another. God guided them so that they wrote in their own words what he wanted them to say. This means the Bible is a completely dependable and trustworthy book. We can believe everything it says.

The Old Testament The Bible has two major parts-the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is a collection of 39 books. Both Jews and Christians accept these books as Scripture. The Old Testament starts with the creation of the universe and of the human race. Then it continues with the history of God's chosen people-Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their decendants, whom God formed into the nation of Israel. In the Old Testament God begins to show his plan for saving us from sin. Through his prophets he promised many times to send the Messiah, the savior of sinners.

The New Testament The New Testament is made up of 27 books accepted by Christians as Scripture. It tells about the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, and about the beginning of the Christian church. It describes the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It explains why he died, and it teaches us how we can be saved from sin.

How the Bible Came to Us When the books of the Bible were first written, the only way people could have a copy was for someone to write it out entirely by hand. This work was done by men called scribes, who spent their entire days copying the Bible letter by letter. Because this was a long, tiresome job, few people could own a copy of the Bible.

The Old Testament was first written in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages. About 250 years before Jesus' birth, it was translated into Greek. All of the New Testament was written in Greek. About 350 years after Jesus' death, Jerome, who was a leader in the early church, translated the Bible into Latin, the language commonly spoken by many people at that time. After several hundred years most people no longer spoke Latin. But even so, Jerome's translation, called the Vulgate, was the official Bible in western Europe for more than 1,000 years.

In the late 1300's John Wycliffe came to believe that it was important for all Christians to read the Bible in their own language. He and his followers were the first to translate the whole Bible into English. But because the printing press had not yet been invented, copies were made by hand and very few were available. About 140 years later William Tyndale translated the New Testament from Greek to English. This was the first English Bible printed on a press.

In 1611 the best-known English Bible, the King James Version or KJV, was published. During the last 100 years many new English translations of the Bible have been made-notably the New International Version or NIV which was finished in 1978. The goal of each new version has been to make a translation of God's Word that is accurate and easy to understand.